Priority Activities Accomplishments
1. Expansion of real-time seismic monitoring to provide coverage of volcanoes in the western Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Incorporation of broadband seismometers into volcano monitoring networks at Long Valley caldera in California, Mauna Loa Volcano on Hawaii Island, and selected Cascade volcanoes in Washington, Oregon, and northern California.
1a. Completed installation of seismic networks at Kanaga, Great Sitkin, Veniaminof, Okmok, Tanaga, and Gareloi.
1b. Three-component, borehole digital seismometers installed in three 100-m-deep drillholes on Mauna Loa and at summit of Kilauea (1999).
1c. Two three-component, borehole digital seismometers installed near north and south rim of Long Valley caldera (1999) and two broadband seismometers installed in caldera (2002). 1d. Broadband seismometer installed on Mount Hood and short- period seismometers installed in Three Sisters uplift, Oregon, and Glacier Peak, Washington (2000-2002).
1e. 15 strong-motion and 5 broadband seismometers installed on island of Hawaii (supported by the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program).
2. Expanded use of real-time geodetic techniques (continuous GPS, borehole strainmeters, and tiltmeters), particularly in Hawaii and at Long Valley in California, along with improved modeling of strain data.
2a. Real-time GPS stations installed on Kilauea (2 new) and Mauna Loa volcanoes (5 new); Three Sisters uplift, Oregon; Mount St. Helens, Washington; Akutan, Veniaminoff, Okmok, and Augustine, Alaska.
2b. Borehole tiltmeters and strainmeters installed in three 100- m-deep drill holes on Mauna Loa and one deep drillhole near the summit of Kilauea (1999); 15 tiltmeters installed in 3-m-deep holes on Kilauea and Mauna Loa.
2c. Two new borehole dilatometers and borehole tiltmeters installed near north and south rim of Long Valley caldera (1999) and real-time GPS network expanded to 16 stations.
3. Further development and testing of the capability to access and process data collected by Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) at selected volcanoes.
InSAR successfully used to quantify deformation at Yellowstone National Park; South Sister, Oregon; and Akutan, Westdahl, Peulik, and Augustine Volcanoes in Alaska; InSAR is recommended for future monitoring of volcanoes.
4. Better integration of seismic and geodetic monitoring with airborne and continuous measurements of volcanic-gas emissions. Collection of data to assess the health and environmental effects of volcanic gases such as sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide.
4.1 Air-quality monitoring system installed in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and public notification protocols established. 4.2 Airborne gas monitoring system developed; provides concurrent digital data at 1-s intervals for CO2, H2S, SO2, air
temperature, barometric pressure, latitude, longitude, and altitude logged on a common time base.
4.3 Continuous monitoring soil-CO2 sensor network at
Mammoth Mountain detected CO2 degassing events, which
coincided with frequent long-period earthquakes under Mammoth Mountain in 1997, and determined that CO2
concentrations build up in tree-kill areas as snow accumulates and drop precipitously as snow melts in the spring, causing intense carbonic acid loading of tree-kill soils and depleting soil fertility.
5. Evaluation of the use of classified remote- sensing data as an additional tool for volcano monitoring.
5.1 Classified imagery used successively to support volcano eruption response and hazards assessment activities. Products released to USGS volcano scientists include sketch maps of often-ephemeral volcanic features (domes, ash deposits) and provision of dimensional information (size of lava domes or new craters, area of active flows).
5.2 Generated a large archive of imagery of recent eruptions (both domestic and foreign), as well as baseline imagery of selected domestic volcanoes, in cooperation with USGS National Mapping personnel.
6. Development of a prototype system at Mount Rainier for automatic detection and notification of large lahars.
6.1 Designed and installed an automated lahar-detection system in the Puyallup and Carbon River valley, including redundant base stations at Pierce County Law Enforcement Support Agency in Tacoma and Washington Emergency Operations Center at Camp Murray (in 2003).
6.2 Provided training to Pierce County staff, who will take over operation and maintenance of the system.
7. Preparation of hazard-assessment reports and zonation maps at all monitored volcanoes, with improved application of probabilistic methods where appropriate.
Completed reports at the following volcanoes: Iliamna,
Aniakchak, Mukushin, Katmai cluster, Mount Hayes in Alaska; Mount Jefferson and Three Sisters area, Oregon; lower northeast rift zone hazard assessment and lava-flow inundation zone maps for Mauna Loa, Hawaii.
8. Preparation of new and revised operational plans for responding to U.S. volcanic crises.
8a. Interagency plans completed for Mount Rainier (2001) and Mount Baker and Glacier Peak, Washington (2003); plans initiated for Mount Hood, Oregon (2002).
8b. Alaska Interagency Operating Plan for Volcanic Ash Episodes, updated (2000, 2002).
8c. USGS response plan revised for Long Valley caldera and Mono Craters Region (2002).
8d. Hawaii lava-flow mitigation plan approved by Hawaii State Civil Defense (2002).
9. Creation of digital content for an electronic geospatial database that will allow diverse, cartographically based datasets and products to be easily accessed, combined, and queried. (Note: more specific databases subsequently identified as priorities, indicated by accomplishments 9.2-9.6).
9.1 Volcano information made accessible online via USGS GEO-DATA Explorer (http://geode.usgs.gov), and the Volcano Weekly Report
(http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/reports/usgs/index.cfm) prepared by USGS and Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program.
9.2 Volcano risk database of active and potentially active volcanoes in Latin American and Caribbean created by VDAP for rapid consultation and response to unrest and eruption; data- base proved critical for immediate assessment of potential threat to reports of unrest in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.
9.3 VALVE (Volcano Analysis and Visualization Environment) developed and tested to display and analyze real-time and archived data from various instruments and surveys. 9.4 Participated in several meetings to plan WOVO.DAT, a proposed database of worldwide volcano monitoring data, sponsored by the World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO).
9.5 Bibliographic database of volcanism in EndNote: created for Long Valley caldera and associated volcanic fields (2000); existing database updated annually for Hawaii’s volcanoes. 9.6 Augmented Global Volcanism Database of the Smithsonian Institution to include known volcanic ash effects to airports and aircraft during flight.
10. Research on the diverse factors that determine the onset, duration, style, end of eruptions, and post-eruption hazards.
Scientific results published in more than 300 papers and maps in peer-reviewed journals, monographs, books, and map series. Accomplishments were made in the following categories and results were used in volcanic hazard assessments and forecasts: 10.1 Studies of volcanic seismicity used to resolve fluid and magma movement beneath volcanoes.
10.2 Geodetic and remote sensing studies documented and modeled active volcanic deformation.
10.3 Geologic and stratigraphic studies, mapping, and GIS analysis, supported by petrology, geochemistry, geochronology, paleomagnetics and geophysical surveys, used to determine style, frequency, and magnitude of past eruptions and subvolcanic structures.
10.4 Petrologic experiments reproduced conditions of eruptions, magma reservoirs, and zones where magmas originate and were used to constrain eruptive dynamics and magmatic plumbing. 10.5 Field and laboratory investigations of water and volcanic gas geochemistry documented and modeled role of fluid transport of magmatic components and importance of CO2, H2S,
and additional gas species as indicators of degassing. 10.6 Modeling of flowage processes and volcano edifice stability enables prediction of areas susceptible to landsliding and flow inundation.
10.7 Studies of geomorphology, fluvial hydrology, and
sedimentology documented and modeled long-term post-eruption impacts on watersheds.
11. Studies of processes at volcanoes that lead to post-eruptive hydrologic hazards.
Studies of geomorphology, fluvial hydrology, and sedimentology documented and modeled long-term post-eruption impacts on watersheds:
11.1 Greater than normal rainfall in the late 1990s in the Pacific Northwest resulted in suspended-sediment yield from the Mount St. Helens 1980 debris-avalanche deposit in the North Fork Toutle River 100 times above typical background preeruption levels, temporarily reversing the nonlinear decline in suspended sediment yields.
11.2 Comparative studies demonstrate that the magnitude and duration of extraordinary post-eruption sediment transport can persist for decades, requiring that mitigation measures designed to reduce downstream sediment delivery remain functional for that duration or more.
11.3 Investigations along the lower Columbia River found that episodic high input of volcanic sediment from Cascade volcanoes over at least the past few thousand years has significantly affected channel morphology and streamflow hydraulics of the Columbia River.
Appendix B